The Road To Damascus

Lesson
#7
The Road to Damascus
(9: 1 31)
A"er the murder of Stephen, the believers in Jerusalem were sca=ered

throughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria. All those who had
been in Jerusalem for Pentecost and remained there a"er the birth of
the Church ed home, taking the gospel message with them.
As the persecu@on raged on, Lesson #6 turned our aDen@on to another
of the original seven deacons, Philip, who encountered Simon the
magician in Samaria and who met the Ethiopian eunuch on the road
to Gaza.
As we learned, Luke inserts these two stories at this point in his
narra@ve to emphasize: 1) that the Gospel message moves out
geographically from Jerusalem to the north and the south, to Samaria
and into Africa, and 2) that the Gospel message moves out theologically
from a core of pious Jewish believers in Jerusalem to people outside of
the Jewish mainstream, people on the fringethe Samaritans (who
were ques@onable Jews, at best) and to a black African Jew, a eunuch.

No one ever hated Christ more than Saul of Tarsus.

We rst met Saul at the stoning of Stephen, where he supervised Stevens
murder. On that same day, Saul began trying to destroy the church;
entering house aIer house and dragging out men and women, he handed
them over for imprisonment (8: 3). As we enter Acts 9 we learn that Saul,
sLll breathing out murderous threats against the disciples of the Lord, went
to the high priest and asked him for le=ers to the synagogues in Damascus,
that, if he should nd any men or women who belonged to the Way, he
might bring them back to Jerusalem in chains (9: 1-2).
Sauls drama@c conversion on the road to Damascus is the stu of legend,
transforming Saul from the greatest of sinners (1 Timothy 1: 15) to the
greatest of saints.
Our brief encounter with Saul of

Tarsus at the stoning of Stephen (7:
54-60) and the intense persecu@on
of the Church in Jerusalem that
followed (8: 1-3) set o alarms,
signaling that this man is BIG
trouble!
And sure enough, as we enter Acts
9, the big trouble gets even bigger.
Now Saul, still breathing murderous threats

against the disciples of the Lord, went to the
high priest and asked him for letters to the
synagogues in Damascus, that, if he should find
any men or women who belonged to the Way, he
might bring them back to Jerusalem in chains.
(9: 1-2)
When the believers in Jerusalem ed the

persecu@on led by Saul of Tarsus, many would
have headed north on either the Via Maris or
the Kings Highway, both of which converge at
Damascus. If Saul wanted to stop the spread
of the Gospel, he would set up the roadblock
at Damascus.
The intensity of Sauls persecu@on is
captured in the Greek word foneuvw
(fon-YOO-o), murderous.
That Saul had access to the high priest, and
that the high priest delegated authority to
Saul to arrest people in the synagogues of
Damascus, suggests something of Sauls
standing within the highest echelon of the
religious leaders.
No@ce, as well, that the Way designates

Jesus followers, an allusion to Isaiah 40: 3
A voice proclaims: In the wilderness
prepare the way of the Lord! Make straight in
the wasteland a highway for our God!
The Way is the same term used by the
Essene community at Qumran to describe its
mode of life, sugges@ng possible links (direct
or indirect) between the Qumran community,
John the Bap@st, Jesus and the early
Chris@ans.
Damascus !
" St. Pauls vision
Via Maris !
" Kings Highway
Jerusalem !
The Damascus Gate, one of seven gates leading out of the Old City today. The road outside the
gate leads to Nablus and from there to Damascus, 135 miles north. The current gate (above)
was built by Suleiman the Magnicent in 1537.
Photography by Ana Maria Vargas
The Romans built over 58,000 miles of roads throughout the Empire, many of which sLll exist
today, 2000 years later. This is a Roman road in Syria near Tall Aqibrn, between Ad Dn and
Kafr Karmn. St. Paul would have traveled on one like it on his journey to Damascus.
10
On his journey, as he was nearing Damascus, a light

from the sky suddenly flashed around him. He fell to
the ground and heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul,
why are you persecuting me? He said, Who are you,
sir? The reply came, I am Jesus, whom you are
persecuting. Now get up and go into the city and you
will be told what you must do. The men who were
traveling with him stood speechless, for they heard the
voice but could see no one. Saul got up from the
ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see
nothing; so they led him by the hand and brought him
to Damascus. For three days he was unable to see, and
he neither ate nor drank.
(9: 3-9)
11
Caravaggio. Conversion on the Way to Damascus (oil on canvas), 1600-1601.

Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome.
12
Luke repeats St. Pauls Road to Damascus story

three @mes in Acts: 1) here (9: 3-9); 2) in Pauls
tes@mony before the Jews of Jerusalem (22: 1-21);
and 3) in Pauls tes@mony before Herod Agrippa I
and his wife, Bernice, at Caesarea Mari@ma (26:
1-18). Each repe@@on adds a few more details to
the story. The fact that Luke repeats the story
three @mes, emphasizes its importance in the
Luke/Acts narra@ve.
In St. Pauls tes@mony before Herod Agrippa, we
learn that the light that ashed was brighter
than the sun (26: 13), and that everyone with
Paul fell to the ground, as well (26: 14).
We also learn that Jesus spoke to St. Paul in
Hebrew (26: 14), a language that Paul spoke
uently (21: 40), along with Aramaic, Greek and
La@n.
13
The light that ashed was so

intense that it instantly blinded St.
Paul, and he remains blind for
three days. Metaphorically, Paul
had been bNot
lind mae.
ll a long, and only
a"er his Road to Damascus
experience can he truly see.
The symbolism
is really nice!
14
Sauls blindness is both literal and

gura@ve. True, he has been blind to
the truth of the Gospel and to Christ
himself, but he is also physically
blinded by the intense ash of light, a
ash that damages his eyes:
. . . so they led him by the hand and brought
him to Damascus. For three days he was
unable to see, and he neither ate nor drank.

(9: 9)
15
St. Pauls blindness may have been

the result of a photomechanical
injury, a burst of intense light las@ng
1-5 nanoseconds that deposits light
energy faster than the eye can
mechanically relax. Such a burst of
light can cause a thermoelas@c
pressure wave that damages re@nal
@ssue by shear force or cavita@ons,
leading to temporary or permanent
blindness.
Malgorzata Rozanowska, Bartosz Rozanowski and
Michael Boulton. Light-induced Damage to the Re@na,
Photochemistry and Photobiology, vol. 88 (November/
December 2012), 1303-1308.
16
There was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias, and the

Lord said to him in a vision, Ananias. He answered, Here
I am, Lord. The Lord said to him, Get up and go to the
street called Straight and ask at the house of Judas for a
man from Tarsus named Saul. He is there praying, and [in
a vision] he has seen a man named Ananias come in and
lay [his] hands on him that he may regain his sight. But
Ananias replied, Lord, I have heard from many sources
about this man, what evil things he has done to your holy
ones in Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the
chief priests to imprison all who call upon your name. But
the Lord said to him, Go, for this man is a chosen
instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles,
kings, and Israelites, and I will show him what he will
have to suffer for my name.
(9: 10-16)
17
St. Ananias Chapel

on Straight Street
Damascus, Syria.
18
St. Ananias Chapel in Damascus, Syria.
This underground structure, the remains of a 5th or 6th-century ByzanLne church, is at the end of
Straight Street near the Bab Sharqi [Eastern Gate], the tradiLonal site of Ananias house.
19
So Ananias went and entered the house;

laying his hands on him, he said, Saul, my
brother, the Lord has sent me, Jesus who
appeared to you on the way by which you
came, that you may regain your sight and be
filled with the holy Spirit. Immediately
things like scales fell from his eyes and he
regained his sight. He got up and was
baptized, and when he had eaten, he recovered
his strength.
(9: 17-19)
20
Pietro de Cortona. Ananias Restoring the Sight of St. Paul (oil on canvas), 1631.
Santa Maria della Concezione, Rome.
21
We read that . . .
Immediately things like scales fell from
[Sauls] eyes and he regained his sight.
(9: 18)
The Greek word for scales is lepiv [lep-IS].
In classical Greek it refers to metal plates
covering an object, and collec@vely, to the
scales of a sh. In the New Testament the
word only occurs oncein this scene;
although in the Septuagint transla@on of the
Book of Tobit the term refers to the white
lm that covers Tobits eyes, making him
blind, which his son, Tobias, peels away,
restoring his fathers sight.
In Sauls story, the scales are a direct result
of the damage to his eyes.
22
A"er three days of blindness, Sauls

eyes are openedboth literally and
gura@vely. Sauls en@re life had
been turned upside down, and he
Not m
e. days in sheer
spent those
three
agony, trauma@zed physically,
spiritually and emo@onally.
Im glad Saul
can see again
now!
23
Saul regained his sight (9: 18), but not his

previous good vision.
In A.D. 55, St. Paul writes:
To keep me from becoming conceited because of
these surpassingly great revelaLons, there was
given me a thorn in my esh, a messenger of
Satan, to torment me. Three Lmes I pleaded with
the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to
me, My grace is sucient for you, for my power is
made perfect in weakness.

(2 Corinthians 12: 7-9)
What is St. Pauls thorn in the esh?

24
On his second missionary journey in A.D.

50-52, Paul and Silas leave Syrian An@och,
retracing the rst missionary journey of A.D.
46-48, in reverse order. When they get to
Pisidian An@och in the interior of Asia Minor,
the plan is to head south to Perga. But we
read in Acts 16: 6-8 that Paul and his
companions travel north throughout the
region of Phrygia and GalaLa, having been
kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the
word in the province of Asia, eventually
ending up on the far west coast of Asia Minor
at Troashundreds of miles from their
planned des@na@on.
So why the change in plans?

25
2nd Missionary Journey
1st Missionary Journey !
26
Once Paul arrives in Corinth in late

A.D. 50, he writes an epistle to the
churches in Gala@a:
As you know, it was because of an illness that
I rst preached the gospel to you. Even
though my illness was a trial to you, you did
not treat me with contempt or scorn. Instead,
you welcomed me as if I were an angel of God,
as if I were Christ Jesus himself. What has
happened to your joy? I can tesLfy that, if you
could have done so, you would have torn out
your eyes and given them to me.

(4: 13-15)
27
So, the reason for St.

Pauls change in plans
had to dNot
o wmith
e. his
eyes!
I see!
(Ha, ha, ha!)
28
Thats correct!
Apparently, the people in the church
at Pisidian An@och refer Paul for
medical care to Gala@a. But either the
care is not available or it is
inadequate, and Paul and company
push westward, on to Troaswhere
they meet Luke, the physician. From
that point on, Luke travels with Paul as
his personal physician, biographer and
friend un@l Pauls death in A.D. 68.
29
To add to our evidence, we might also

observe that St. Paul typically dictates
his epistles and leDers, as we learn in
Romans 16: 22, when Ter@us, Pauls
secretary, says: I TerLus, who wrote
down this le=er, greet you in the Lord,
too!
Yet on at least two occasionsin
Gala@ans and 2 ThessaloniansPaul
writes an epistle in his own hand,
saying in Gala@ans 6: 11See what
large le=ers I use as I write to you with
my own handsugges@ng that he
had problems seeing.
30
James Joyce (1882-1941), the Irish

novelist and author of Ulysses
(1922), had notoriously poor
eyesight, which made it dicult for
him to write and to travel.
Manuscript page from Ulysses, the

crabbed handwri@ng reec@ng Joyces
eye troubles.
31
So, St. Paul traveled

throughout the
Roman Empire for 18
Not me.
years
like
Mr. Magoo!
32
That would be a
signicant thorn in the
esh for a scholar,
public debater
and
Not me.
world
traveler like St. Paul.
33
He stayed some days with the disciples in

Damascus, and he began at once to proclaim
Jesus in the synagogues, that he is the Son of
God. All who heard him were astounded and
said, Is not this the man who in Jerusalem
ravaged those who call upon this name, and
came here expressly to take them back in
chains to the chief priests? But Saul grew
all the stronger and confounded [the] Jews
who lived in Damascus, proving that this is the
Messiah.
(9: 20-22)
34
How to get into

that hen house?
Hummm.
35
It seems that Saul can

argue for or against
Christ with equal
rhetorical
Not me. s kill.
But can he be
trusted?
36
After a long time had passed, the Jews

conspired to kill him, but their plot became
known to Saul. Now they were keeping watch
on the gates day and night so as to kill him,
but his disciples let him down through an
opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket.
(9: 23-25)
37
Bab Sharqi (The Eastern Gate), one of eight ancient city gates of Damascus. This is the only
original Roman gate, reconstructed in the 1960s. The 85 ". wide gate stands over the main
entrance to The Street Called Straight.
38
Unknown. St. Paul Let Down in a Basket from the Walls of Damascus
(plaque, copper guilt with champlev), c. 1170.
Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
39
When he arrived in Jerusalem he tried to join the

disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing
that he was a disciple. Then Barnabas took charge of him
and brought him to the apostles, and he reported to them
how on the way he had seen the Lord and that he had
spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had spoken out
boldly in the name of Jesus. He moved about freely with
them in Jerusalem, and spoke out boldly in the name of the
Lord. He also spoke and debated with the Hellenists, but
they tried to kill him. And when the brothers learned of
this, they took him down to Caesarea and sent him on his
way to Tarsus. The church throughout all Judea, Galilee,
and Samaria was at peace. It was being built up and
walked in the fear of the Lord, and with the consolation of
the holy Spirit it grew in numbers.
(9: 26-31)
40
Saul of Tarsus?
I dont think so!
41
Of course the Apostles dont trust Saul; this

has GOT to be a ruse!
But someone has to determine if Sauls
conversion is genuine. A"er all, the Holy
Spirit has been doing incredible thingsand
maybe Sauls conversion is one of them.
So Barnabas set up a mee@ng with Saul; they
talk; and Barnabas determines that Saul is
genuine, so he brings Saul to meet the
Apostles.
A"er Saul tells his story, the Apostles
cauLously allow him to move about freely in
the Jerusalem synagogues, proclaiming the
Gospel . . .
BUT
42
About 30 miles
43
Once a fana@c,
always a
fana@c!
Not me.
Im going to
keep an eye
on him!
44
Thats a very good idea!

Saul . . .
spoke out boldly in the name of the Lord (9:
28); and
he debated with the Hellenists [the same ones
who hauled Stephen before the Sanhedrin?], but
they tried to kill him (9: 29).
The Apostles then make an execu@ve

decision:
They took [Saul] down to Caesarea and sent
him on his way to Tarsus (9: 30).
45
Apos
tles
About 30 miles
46
The church throughout all

Judea, Galilee and Samaria
was [nally] at peace!

(9: 31)
47
1. Why was Saul of Tarsus so intent on persecu@ng

the Church?
2. What evidence do you nd that Saul was highly
regarded by the Jewish leadership?
3. Why did Saul go to Damascus to arrest the
believers?
4. Sauls eyes were physically damaged by the
brilliant ash of light, but how might we
understand Sauls experience metaphorically?
5. What evidence do you nd that Saul s@ll has a lot
to learn, even a"er his drama@c conversion?
48
Copyright 2015 by William C. Creasy

All rights reserved. No part of this courseaudio, video,

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49

The Road To Damascus

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Lesson

The Road to Damascus

A"er the murder of Stephen, the believers in Jerusalem were sca=ered

The Road to Damascus

No one ever hated Christ more than Saul of Tarsus.

The Road to Damascus

Our brief encounter with Saul of

The Road to Damascus

Now Saul, still breathing murderous threats

The Road to Damascus

When the believers in Jerusalem ed the

The Road to Damascus

No@ce, as well, that the Way designates

The Road to Damascus

" Kings Highway

On his journey, as he was nearing Damascus, a light

The Road to Damascus

Caravaggio. Conversion on the Way to Damascus (oil on canvas), 1600-1601.

Luke repeats St. Pauls Road to Damascus story

The light that ashed was so

The Road to Damascus

Sauls blindness is both literal and

The Road to Damascus

St. Pauls blindness may have been

The Road to Damascus

There was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias, and the

The Road to Damascus

St. Ananias Chapel

The Road to Damascus

St. Ananias Chapel in Damascus, Syria.

So Ananias went and entered the house;

The Road to Damascus

A"er three days of blindness, Sauls

The Road to Damascus

Saul regained his sight (9: 18), but not his

(2 Corinthians 12: 7-9)

What is St. Pauls thorn in the esh?

The Road to Damascus

On his second missionary journey in A.D.

The Road to Damascus

2nd Missionary Journey

1st Missionary Journey !

The Road to Damascus

Once Paul arrives in Corinth in late

The Road to Damascus

So, the reason for St.

(Ha, ha, ha!)

The Road to Damascus

The Road to Damascus

To add to our evidence, we might also

James Joyce (1882-1941), the Irish

Manuscript page from Ulysses, the

So, St. Paul traveled

The Road to Damascus

The Road to Damascus

He stayed some days with the disciples in

The Road to Damascus

How to get into

The Road to Damascus

It seems that Saul can

The Road to Damascus

After a long time had passed, the Jews